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Keys to PSA Implementation Success: Tips from the Trenches

Brian Brant is a Dynamics CRM Practice Director for Tribridge. Read More

Over the past several years, Tribridge has implemented many Dynamics CRM-based PSA solutions for our customers. We are now fully committed to implementing the Dynamics Project Service Automation (Dynamics PSA) solution that was released as part of the CRM Online Spring 2016 Wave and we are finding these same dynamics apply to all our PSA implementations.

In this post, I will share some tips from the trenches on what we have found to be key for a successful PSA implementation.

Big Bang Deployment May Not be a Big Success

While the level of success in deployments will vary by the readiness and commitment of the customer, even the most prepared customers struggle with deploying too much PSA functionality too quickly. A traditional "big bang" approach of deploying all or most of the functionality in a single, large go-live is simply not effective when deploying PSA solutions.

Instead, it's vital to define an iterative deployment approach where PSA functionality can be rolled out to users in a series of iterative releases. While this may sound like a series of agile sprints, this prescriptive approach typically involves the initial deployment of a core release followed by series of releases or value drops. The size and timing of the subsequent releases will vary based on factors such as the breadth PSA functionality, the dependency to the business processes, and the number of business units to which PSA will be deployed.

Now that we are implementing Dynamics PSA, our customers immediately see how the solution's extensive functionality can benefit them. However, it is important to be prescriptive in what functionality is deployed and when. The iterative approach has proven to be successful in on our past PSA implementations and we are finding this even more relevant in our current implementations of Dynamics PSA.

Establish Your Own Personal Deployment Path

PSA solutions are transformative for your users and impact their daily activities in ways different than traditional CRM sales, marketing and customer service solutions. Establishing a deployment path which allows the users to effectively complete the core "blocking and tackling" activities in an initial release, followed by deployments of additional value-added functionality has proven to be the most successful approach for our customers.

As with any implementation, the early success of the system has a huge impact on the ultimate long-term adoption by users and meeting the crucial long-term goals of the solution. If the users are overwhelmed with too much up front, they will underutilize much of the value-added capabilities of the solution. In a worst case scenario, adoption may slowly fizzle out altogether. In some cases, the users will simply not use the system (often at the direction of their managers) or will find temporary workarounds which often become permanent.